The Harrowing Truth Of Fast Fashion Is Documented In Rahul Jain’s Film ‘Machines’

IWB Post

May 17, 2018

If all of us put a little thought before buying latest trends in supremely affordable prices, we might realise how dangerous fast fashion actually is. The phenomenon in the fashion industry where the production processes are expedited in order to get new trends in the market as quickly and cheaply as possible defines fast fashion perfectly.

You might think what’s the harm in it after all – it’s a process providing us with the two best options. The process is causing disastrous effects on the environment and is totally unfair to the workers who spend hours to meet the required number of supplies. Machines, a documentary on fast fashion by the 25-year-old debutant Rahul Jain, elaborates the process.

In the documentary, we see the workers of an unnamed textile factory in India get paid three US dollars per 12-hour shift. The 75-minute long documentary by Jain looks at the lives of immigrant workers in a Gujarat textile factory. It painfully and brilliantly narrates the life of the textile labourers.

Workers shown in the documentary are from states Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, and Odisha. Working 12-hour shifts are the men who are struggling from poverty and work in the factories from day to night, with no time to eat and rest, to earn Rs 7,000 per month.

The documentary also captures what the bosses of the industries think about the labourers. One of them, as he fiddles with his iPhone, is seen saying, “These illiterate people, they’ll spend [their salary] on tobacco, alcohol, other rotten things. Their wife and children are roaming here and there! Before, his belly was empty, and he showed such sincerity. He gets ten times more now, and he’s much more relaxed… He thinks: let the company fuck off!”

Watching the documentary might provoke us to question – are these factories really providing employment to the workers or is it just another tactic of society to exploit people who are in need of money.

The documentary released last year in October and was also awarded the Sundance World Cinema Documentary award for Cinematography.